VeinMiner by MiraculixxT breaks a whole connected vein when you mine one block of it. It runs on the server, so every player benefits without installing anything, and its block groups, tool restrictions and limits are configured live through chat commands rather than a config file.
Strike one block of a diamond vein and the rest of it goes with it. That is the whole idea, and it is old enough that half a dozen unrelated mods have been named after it. This page covers the one by MiraculixxT, the AGPL-licensed project at MiraculixxT/Veinminer, which ships as a mod, a server plugin and a datapack from a single Modrinth listing, and which is the one most people mean when they say VeinMiner.
What makes this version worth a page of its own is that it decides everything on the server. There is no client mod to hand out, no version matching to police, and nothing stopping a completely vanilla player from benefiting the moment they join. Almost all of the interesting configuration happens through chat commands rather than a config file you have to restart to reload.
VeinMiner does not have a hardcoded list of "things that vein mine". It has groups, and a group is the unit that matters:
searchRadius controls how far the search looks around each connected block. The default is 1, meaning strictly touching neighbours, and the maximum is 5. Raising it lets the chain jump small gaps, which is what you want for scattered ore and emphatically not what you want for stone.maxChain caps how many blocks one swing can take. The default is 100.One rule sits above all of this: your tool has to be able to mine the block normally. A wooden pickaxe will not vein mine diamond, because a wooden pickaxe cannot mine diamond. On the v2 mod that check can be switched off with needCorrectTool, but it is on by default.
Less than most write-ups suggest, and the difference matters. A fresh install ships with exactly one group:
#c:ores, restricted to the tool tag #minecraft:pickaxes.That is the entire default configuration. It is a good default: #c:ores is the cross-mod convention tag rather than the vanilla-only one, so ores added by other mods that follow the convention are included without you doing anything. But it means trees do not vein mine out of the box. Logs are the worked example the project uses to show you how to build a group, not something that is already there.
Three commands cover almost everything. Creating the logs group, which is the first thing most people want:
/veinminer groups create Logs
/veinminer groups edit Logs add-block #minecraft:logs
/veinminer groups edit Logs add-tool #minecraft:axesBlock and item fields accept tags as well as individual IDs, which is why one line covers every log type in the game. To find the ID of something in front of you, look at it with the F3 screen open and read the "looking at" line.
The rest of the surface:
/veinminer blocks: a simpler list of blocks that vein mine with any tool, for when you do not need a group's precision./veinminer groups: create, edit and inspect groups./veinminer settings: everything in the list below./veinminer presets: ready-made groups and settings, worth looking at before building anything by hand./veinminer toggle: turns VeinMiner off server-wide.Groups are stored in veinminer/default_groups.json (under config/ for the mod, plugins/ for the plugin), and you can edit that file directly if you would rather not work through chat.
Defaults are deliberately close to vanilla balance, and most of the tuning people actually do is here:
mustSneak (false): off by default, so vein mining is always on. Turn it on if you want deliberate control without installing anything extra.cooldown (20 ticks): one second between vein mines.delay (1 tick): the pause between each block in a chain breaking, which is what gives it the visible cascade rather than an instant pop.maxChain (100): blocks per swing.durabilityDecrease (true): every block in the chain costs durability, so a big vein costs a real chunk of a tool.needCorrectTool (true): enforce the normal tool requirement.hungerPerBlock (0.0): off by default; vanilla mining costs 0.005 per block, so this is where you go if you want vein mining to make you hungry.miningSpeedModifier (0.0): off by default; raises the time a swing takes according to how big the vein is.mergeItemDrops (false): collects every drop at the block you broke rather than scattering them through the vein.permissionRestricted (false): when on, only players with veinminer.use can vein mine.There is also an override system for when one global value is not enough: you can override a setting for players using the hotkey addon, or for one specific group. Group overrides beat client overrides, which beat the plain setting. Turning off durability cost for a sand-and-dirt group while keeping it for ores is the obvious use.
Modrinth marks VeinMiner as required on the server and optional on the client, and that is the single most practical thing about it. Every player on a server gets vein mining whether or not they have installed anything, on any launcher, on any loader. The server does the work and sends the results.
Permissions can be handed out with LuckPerms, with the caveat, stated by the project, that LuckPerms integration does not yet cover NeoForge. Operators have every permission regardless.
Both are separate downloads by the same author, and neither is needed for VeinMiner to work:
mustSneak feels clumsy. Because it is client-side, individual players can choose it independently, and the server can apply different settings to players who have it.The Modrinth listing carries two lines with the same name, and picking the wrong one is a common false start.
/function veinminer:_config by an operator. It is preconfigured for ores and pickaxes like v2, but it has none of v2's depth.Use the datapack if you cannot install mods or plugins at all. Otherwise v2 is the version worth having.
Version 2.12.1, released 22 August 2026, covers Minecraft 26.2 on every platform it supports:
Older Minecraft versions are covered a long way back, to 1.17.
This is where installs fail, and the three cases are genuinely different:
The Kotlin dependency on both mod loaders is unusual enough to be worth noticing; VeinMiner is written in Kotlin, and the loader needs the runtime for it.
Two questions come up constantly and the honest answer is that this project's documentation does not address them. Fortune and Silk Touch are not mentioned anywhere in the official description, so how they interact with a vein is not something that can be stated from the sources. Other mods with similar names do document this, and they behave differently from each other, one disabling vein mining entirely when Fortune is present, which is exactly why their behaviour cannot be borrowed for this one. Test it on your own setup, or ask on the project's Discord.
One thing the project does warn about: vein mining unnaturally large veins can cause lag on both client and server, not from the mod's own work but from the sheer number of item entities that appear at once. maxChain exists for that reason, and mergeItemDrops helps as well.
VeinMiner is by MiraculixxT, with source on GitHub and the licence declared as AGPL-3.0 on its Modrinth page. It is a Java Edition project. It changes gameplay deliberately, so it is a convenience and quality-of-life mod rather than a performance one. If you are assembling a performance stack, Sodium, Lithium, FerriteCore and ModernFix are the mods for that, and VeinMiner is unrelated to all of them.
Four different files carry the same version number, and which one you need depends on what you are installing onto rather than on what you play. Work that out first.
veinminer-fabric-2.12.1.jar serves both.veinminer-neoforge-2.12.1.jar.veinminer-paper-2.12.1.jar, which is a plugin and goes in a different folder.veinminer-1.3.5.zip.All four are listed in the Download section on this page, where the platform is a filter rather than something to pick out of one long Modrinth listing, and every row links to that official project. GitHub carries the same releases. Repackaged copies on other sites are not worth the risk.
Two dependencies, both genuinely required:
veinminer-fabric-2.12.1.jar from the Download section on this page.mods folder. The default profile uses %appdata%\.minecraft\mods on Windows; Prism, MultiMC and the CurseForge app keep one folder per instance and it must be that instance's.veinminer-neoforge-2.12.1.jar.mods and launch.veinminer-paper-2.12.1.jar into plugins, not mods.No dependencies. Players do not install anything.
veinminer-1.3.5.zip; do not unzip it.datapacks folder. For a single-player world that is inside the save directory; for a server it is inside the world folder./reload in game, or restart./function veinminer:_config, which opens an interactive menu in chat. You need operator status or cheats enabled.On the v2 mod or plugin, type /veinminer. If the command exists, VeinMiner is running. On a server you will need operator status to see most of it.
Then test the default: find any ore, hit it with a pickaxe that can actually mine it, and watch the rest of the vein go. Coal is the easiest thing to find and a stone pickaxe is enough.
Ores are configured already. Trees are not, and this is the group almost everyone adds first:
/veinminer groups create Logs
/veinminer groups edit Logs add-block #minecraft:logs
/veinminer groups edit Logs add-tool #minecraft:axesThe tool restriction is the part worth keeping: without it a pickaxe would fell trees too. Before building anything more elaborate, run /veinminer presets and see whether what you want is already there.
To change how it behaves rather than what it applies to, use /veinminer settings <name> with no value to read the current one, or with a value to set it. Lowering maxChain from 100 is the usual first adjustment on a multiplayer server.
Nothing happens when you break an ore. Check the tool first: vein mining requires a tool that could mine that block normally. A stone pickaxe on iron works; a wooden one does not.
Nothing happens on trees. Expected. Logs are not configured by default. Create the group above.
The /veinminer command does not exist. The mod did not load. On Fabric or Quilt this is nearly always a missing dependency. Check that both Fabric API and Fabric Language Kotlin are present and built for your exact Minecraft version. On NeoForge, check KotlinLangForge.
It works for you but not for other players. permissionRestricted is switched on and they do not have veinminer.use. Either grant it or turn the setting off.
You installed it as a player and nothing changed on the server you play on. That is how it is meant to work: VeinMiner is decided server-side. Your copy does nothing on someone else's server. Ask the owner.
The plugin JAR did nothing. Check it went into plugins and not mods, and that you took the Paper build rather than a mod build.
The datapack did nothing. It has to sit in the world's datapacks folder, stay zipped, and be picked up by /reload. Configuration needs operator or cheats.
Large veins cause a stutter. That is the item entities, not the mod thinking. Lower maxChain, or turn on mergeItemDrops so everything lands in one place.
New to installing mods generally? The step-by-step mod installation guide covers loaders and the mods folder in more detail, and our guide to mods that will not load covers missing dependencies in more depth.
No builds match these filters.
No, and this catches most people out. A fresh install ships exactly one group: ores, using the #c:ores tag restricted to pickaxes. Logs are the worked example the project uses to show you how to build a group, not something already set up. Creating a Logs group takes three chat commands.
Through groups. A group holds one or more block types that are treated as the same block, and can be restricted to particular tools. When you break a block in a group, VeinMiner searches outward for connected blocks from that group (the searchRadius setting controls how far it looks from each one, defaulting to directly touching neighbours), and breaks them up to the maxChain limit, which defaults to 100.
Not until you set it up. Only ores are configured by default. Adding logs takes three commands: create a group, add the #minecraft:logs block tag to it, and add the #minecraft:axes tool tag so pickaxes do not start felling trees. The installation guide has the exact lines.
Often without any setup. The default ore group uses the #c:ores tag, which is the cross-mod convention tag rather than the vanilla-only one, so ores from mods that follow that convention are already covered. Anything not covered can be added to a group by its block ID, which you can read off the F3 screen while looking at it.
Yes by default: every block in the chain costs durability, so a large vein takes a real bite out of a tool. The durabilityDecrease setting turns it off, and it can also be overridden for individual groups, so you could keep the cost on ores while removing it from a sand and dirt group.
By default there is nothing to activate: it applies whenever you break a configured block with a suitable tool. If you want deliberate control, either turn on the mustSneak setting so it only triggers while crouching, or install the separate Hotkey Addon, which restricts it to while a key is held and shows a preview of what will break.
Yes, with /veinminer settings maxChain followed by the number you want. It defaults to 100. Running the command without a value reports the current setting instead of changing it.
Server-side. Modrinth marks it required on the server and optional on the client, which means every player on a server with VeinMiner gets it regardless of what they have installed, including entirely vanilla clients. The flip side is that installing it yourself does nothing on a server that does not have it. In single-player it works normally, because your game runs its own internal server.
On Fabric and Quilt, yes, and it also requires Fabric Language Kotlin, which is the one people miss. Both are listed as required dependencies on the current build. The NeoForge build needs KotlinLangForge instead, and the Paper, Purpur and Folia plugin needs nothing at all.
Not on current versions. The newest Forge build is 1.2.1 for Minecraft 1.20.4, from November 2023, and the project describes version 2 as supporting Fabric/Quilt, Paper/Purpur/Folia and NeoForge. There is no current Forge file, and a NeoForge build will not load on Forge.
Version 2 is the mod and plugin, with block groups, per-setting configuration, overrides and addon support, and it needs Fabric, Quilt, NeoForge or a Paper-family server. Version 1 is a datapack that runs on anything, including a plain vanilla server, needs nothing installed, and is configured through a chat menu opened with /function veinminer:_config by an operator. Version 1 is the fallback for when you cannot install mods or plugins.
It is not a performance mod and makes no performance claims in either direction. The project does warn that vein mining unusually large veins can cause lag on the client and server, not from the mod's own work, but from the number of item entities dropping at once. Keeping maxChain sensible, or enabling mergeItemDrops so everything lands in one spot, addresses that.
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